Well, I finally got back to the Wolverine. I really want to get this one done so I going to try and devote most of my attention to it. I added some more hull details and started on the turret. The original design just has a simple rectangular box with another box section attached to the back, but I decided to up the ante a bit and make it more curvy reflecting the forward hull section.
And some detailing on the bottom.
Also, did some work on the Spartius. The turret on this one is a little more tricky blending that shape together in the back. One thing I don't like is the way it's offset to the side. I'm not a big fan of asymmetrical designs, it's the same way on the Horatius.
And of coarse a nice comparison render with the Romulus APC.
I finally got a few days off from work so I'm gonna devote some of the time to this project. Got inspired to fiddle with the Lupis.
The Lupis has a lot of grav coils powering it so that explains why it's one of the fastest APC's on the battlefield.
I'm not going to model the interiors of any of the vehicles, but I wanted to show this one with the doors up. As you can see, even though the Lupis is relatively small compared to other Tanks/APC's, it's still pretty spacious in the back of the main troop compartment. A standard infantry squad is made up of four legionnaires, so there's plenty of room for supplies and equipment. Also the eight doors (four per side) allows for rapid on and off loading of personnel in a hot combat zone.
Some of the details are just blocked in, but I'm nearing the end of this particular model. I think I would like to try and export this into Substance Painter once done and give it a nice paint job.
As an added bonus, I'm including an auxiliary vehicle I call the Chariot. It's named in honor of the Lost In Space land ram. Also, it seems fitting considering that TOG's society is based on an Ancient Roman theme. The Chariot is based on the Lupis chassis and is used as a grav supply vehicle. Back when I started this project, I got into a discussion about the need for such a vehicle, and so I went ahead and whipped one up. It only has defensive weaponry in the form of two anti-personnel lasers and a Vulcan 2 anti-missile gatling gun. Also, the doors are replaced by two large sliding panels.
After digging out the Chariot, I decided to call up a few more models. These are the last two that I've built so far but yet to showcase in this thread. The Aeneas and Vespasian. Both are TOG light tanks.
The Aeneas is the standard combat vehicle and counterpart to the Wolverine. Despite the Wolverine's large complement of missiles, most experts believe it is no match for the Aeneas in a head-to-head contest.
The Vespasian is primarily a Hunter-Killer tank. It is tasked with acting as a screening vehicle for advancing formations and destroying any other light tanks it may come across. It is armed with a 150mm Gauss cannon, which is unusual for a light tank, making it well suited for this role.
Although both models were considered finished, I'm including them here because I want to make some component updates and additions. For example, I'm exercising artistic license by adding a Vulcan III to the Vespasian even though it's not officially in the vehicle stats. I just think it looks cool.
I have a several more vehicles I have to get to, most importantly the CW/RL Viper light APC, and then I plan on turning my attention to some Interceptors.
Finally got started on the last model of the main ten armored vehicles....the Nah Tikal or Viper Light APC.
So far, it's mostly just blocked in at this stage and I'm concentrating on the back end and turret because those areas are pretty easy. The front end will be a real challenge, however, and I'm not yet sure how I'm going to tackle it.
As you can see, it has a lot of similarities with the Wolverine due to the fact that both where designed by Naram engineers. The Naram are a humanoid race with factions allied with both the Commonwealth and TOG.
Another fun fact, is that the Viper also shares a design trait with the enemy Lupis. Both have the same turret! In illustrations and on the miniatures, they are identical. The only time this is not the case is on the vehicle ortho drawings which show the Lupis's turret to be asymmetrical and the 25mm cannon mounted to the side.
I was originally just going to fudge it and use the same one on both models, but once I got going on the Viper, I decided I had to go the extra mile and now I'm in the process of re-working the Lupis even though it goes against my earlier practice of favoring the miniatures as my main source of reference.
After checking back on my references, I realized I got the turret on the Spartius somewhat wrong. So I spent a few hours over the weekend re-working that and some other things.
Did some minor work on one of the turret's TVLG missile launchers. For some reason the design has a door covering the missile tubes, which I believe makes little sense, since the other two launchers are open. So I'm just skipping it and leaving it as shown.
And I joined parts of the hull into one piece and hollowed it out for the troop compartment. I'm not quite sure how the door operates except maybe as a lowering ramp configuration, we'll see. I also added recesses in the hull on either side of the door which you see just above and behind the "R" symbol....I think it adds a little more pizzaz to that area.
Here's an image from the Centurion Manual. It's the only good sketch illustration of the Spartius, but unfortunately doesn't show how the door works.
If I ever manage to make decent character models of the legionnaires, I'd like to try and recreate this image (and others) in 3D. There's so many great works of art in these books which is one of things that made me a fan in the first place.
Btw, if you are wondering why the guy on the left appears to be floating in mid air, its because infantry in grav legions are equipped with personal grav belts that allow them to jump long distances in order to keep up with their vehicles. This is why they are often referred to as "bounce" infantry. Although, he seems a bit gung-ho if you ask me!
Glad to see that you are stll at it and really looking forward for the vehicles with paint job. The RenLeg group members will have their eyes popping out!
Glad to see that you are stll at it and really looking forward for the vehicles with paint job. The RenLeg group members will have their eyes popping out!
Thanks. Hopefully I can dress these guys up nicely, but my texturing skills are still pretty basic at this time. I've also been collecting a bunch of images of people's physical models to get some ideas of how I may want them to look, but it will definitely be a learning process, lol.
Depending on the model, I may try to do some procedurally and others in Substance Painter, and see which give the better results.
It's been 3 months already since the last update. (groan)
Sorry for the delay, but my work schedule has changed recently and I don't have much time or energy these days to devote towards hobbies. So I forced myself to put in some effort.
In order to get back into the groove of things, I decided to work on the Remus GEV that I mentioned awhile back. Because it is based on the Romulus APC, about 70% of the modeling was already done. Mostly I had to make a new front end and modify the main hull somewhat, but the rest is pretty much the same.
As usual the reference material is all over the place, so I just went with what I thought looked good. Since this would mainly be a background vehicle, I didn't want to put too much time into it. However, I may go back and add some details here and there if I think of something cool.
As with the Romulus, the main entryway is a large drop down hatch in the rear.
Ok, finishing up the Remus. Added some things and removed some others.
I checked the stats in the reference book and noticed that the main laser was a 1.5/4 instead of the 5/6 on the Romulus, so I just shortened the length a couple of meters. Also, it didn't have a Vulcan gatling gun so that was replaced with a sensor/site thingy.
Next, because GEV's lay down and clear mine fields, I added some mine launchers (3 per side) which are those things in the center of the image.
Some details on the bottom of the forward hull just to break up those flat areas although you wouldn't normally see them since these vehicles mostly travel about a meter above ground level thanks to their terrain following radar. Sometimes they do fly at treetop height if they're in a hurry however.
So, that's about it for the modelling stage on this one. I'll play around with some basic textures and make a recognition sheet for my new thread. I'm glad I finally have one completed. I was starting to get depressed. lol
P.S. I'm not going to model the CW/RL Constructor GEV, which is based on the Liberator, because going by the only image I have of it the two look exactly the same. Instead I might take a crack at the new Forger GEV that is outlined in the Centurion Expansion book. It's supposed to replace the Constructor and I've always liked the design so....we'll see.
Hi, got some inspiration to work on the Spartius tonight.
Started on the main troop access door.
I toyed with the idea of making it a horizontal-split design, but that would mean an extending ramp would be needed to get on and off and I didn't like that. Then, tried with the top half split and the bottom half drop down, but that still seemed too complicated. Finally, I just settled on a simple one piece drop down like I originally intended.
One problem I ran into was that I neglected to leave clearance for the door to pivot without hitting the underside of the hull opening....doh! So I had to lower the height of the doorway. Fortunately, there was still just enough room for Marvin (my scale dude) to fit without bumping his head....phew.
Also, looking closer at the miniature, I realize now that only the starboard side the vehicle has a door. Glad I caught that.
For my next addition, I returned to something I've been tinkering on for quite awhile. The Horatius was the very first grav tank model that I worked on when I started this project, so it's a little special to me. The only thing I didn't like about it was the positioning of the 150mm Gauss cannon on the main hull in a tank destroyer fashion.
Well, this new model is my fanboy design.
My semi backstory:
A supercomputer was programed to come up with the ideal medium grav tank and out popped the Horatius. The original version had the gun located on the turret. All seemed well until an unforeseen flaw caused the turret traversing mechanism to freeze up after a few hours of continuous firing of the main gun. To remedy the problem, the 150mm was moved to its current position and the Horatius MK II was put into full production. However, despite the fact that the vehicle was a success on the battlefield and only in service for less than a decade, TOGSOG decided to put out a call for a new tank that could potentially replace the Horatius. Several designs have been submitted and are currently going thru testing. The leading contender being the Lepidus, by the Ssoran firm SS'ta Shekaa (the Ssora are a race of reptilian bipeds).
Not wanting to lose its lucrative contract Haneppas Industries, the manufacturer of the Horatius, decided to put in their own bid. To save time, instead of coming up with a new design from scratch, they re-vamped the existing one. New armor plating, state-of-art avionics and increased power were all added. Most importantly, the 150mm Gauss cannon was moved back to its original position vastly improving the tanks tactical capabilities. Both the Lepidus and Horatius MK III have their strengths and weaknesses and only time will tell which will win out in the end.
Ok, what did I change:
Increased the size of the turret, moved it to the centerline of the vehicle and further forward to its center of gravity.
Moved the 150mm Gauss cannon back to the turret (as mentioned above).
Moved the 3/6 laser to the right side of the turret (because I think it looks good there).
Uprated the Vulcan II to a Vulcan III and placed it in a mini-turret on the upper rear of the main turret.
Moved the sensor domes to the rear of the turret to clear the line of sight of the Vulcan III.
Increased the number SMLM missiles from two to six and moved them to where the main gun was located.
Replaced the 50mm Gauss cannon with a GMDC-15 (Gatling Mass Driver Cannon).
Added a commanders hatch and some misc. details.
Some components are just blocked in so still have some modeling yet to do.
Here's a comparison of the MK III vs the MK II on the right.
*Full disclaimer: I'm not sure but I believe I read on some blog site a long time ago, that another fan outlined their text version of a Horatius MK III but I just want to state for the record that I came up with my version independently, so any similarities are merely coincidental.
More on the Horatius' turret section. Refined the main gun mount and commanders hatch, and did a lot on the GMDC-15. Since this type of weapon system was fairly new, FASA never did much in the way of drawings showing one (that I know of) so I have to guesstimate. The only thing to go on is that its multi-barreled. Also, I didn't show it before but I added the crew hatch from the Aeneas which lifts up and pivots back so they don't get in the way.
And for fun here's a render of it all buttoned up and the 150mm fully elevated @ 20 deg. I based that on the Abrams A1 main gun spec.
A small update on the Vespasian.
I took the liberty of adding the Vulcan III and commanders hatch from the Horatius. I didn't want all the secondary weapons all bunched up, so I mirrored the missile launcher to the opposite side. Did the same for the sensor domes just because it looked better. I figure no one will notice.
Earlier, I was watching some size comparison videos on YouTube of various sci-fi game vehicles (Halo, Elite Dangerous, etc) and so I thought it might be interesting to take an inventory of what I've built so far.
Here's a composition of every vehicle with the exception of the Viper. It's still in the roughed out stage, so I didn't think it looked presentable. The rest are done or nearly completed.
The first row are all Commonwealth/Renegade Legion vehicles and the second and third are TOG.
It's helpful to get a good idea of how the scale of each model interacts with the others. Looking at the Vespasian, I think it might be a tad too big for a light tank so I'm going to re-size it down somewhat. In contrast the Wolverine looks kinda small-ish so perhaps I need to size it up, oh about 5% maybe.
In the meantime I'm going over some models and making misc. changes here and there, doing mesh cleanup and so forth, before continuing on with anything else major.
Did some minor work on the Seeker recon tank so I did a few renders to give some better views of it.
As with all scout type vehicles, the goal of the Seeker is to see without being seen, (as its name implies) so it's not intended to get into direct combat with enemy vehicles. If it does find itself in trouble, it has a powerful MDC to fend off would be attackers. It's also one of the fastest tanks in service, so it relies mostly on its speed and stealth for defense.
I figure that this vehicle only has a crew of two with the tank commander doubling up as the weapons operator since a third member would be redundant given the Seekers mission profile.
Also, I resized the Vespasian like I mentioned. It's now more on par with the Aeneas in terms of overall scale. The hard part was only altering the hull without touching the common parts like weapons and sensor domes, etc., so it took a bit re-working of some structural components which was a pain.
First, I altered the Lupus' turret enough to set it apart from the Viper. It's now closer to the blueprints rather then the miniature which is identical to it's counterpart. (Blame FASA and the miniature makers for being lazy). lol
All I have to do now is finish up on those weird details on the upper rear of the troop compartment. I considered not adding them or reducing them somewhat, but I want to stick mostly to the original design. I also began playing around with the surface shading by experimenting with different color schemes, adding some "grunge" for discoloration, and some very subtle pot marks and scratches. Once I come up with something I'm happy with I'll try adding some edge wear and decals.
Next, I'm just wrapping up the Chariot.
I added two upper access doors to allow for larger items to be lifted into cargo hold instead of going in thru the side doorways.
Can't think of much more to add to this one, so I guess I can place it in the done column. Stay tuned for the upcoming Chariot Recognition Sheet!
I'm currently fiddling with two different versions of the green pattern....one camo and one plain. After endless tweaking to see what this or that button does, here is where I'm at.
Here is a close-up of the surface features and logo image. I made it back when I built the MK II in Lightwave and imported it into Modo. For some reason when I applied the textures, none of the shaders would work on the top and inner surfaces of the front hull halves. I discovered it had something to do with the "cull backface" setting. When I turned it off, everything was fine but then the textures would project onto the hull inner surfaces! Spent an hour trying to figure out why it was doing that with no luck. So I gave up and just assigned separate materials for the panels that the logos are on, copied the shaders and everything was good to go.
Btw, the hull number designates that this tank is assigned to the First Cohort of the infamous 13379th Strike Legion (The Harbingers of Death). Many a veteran would pause at the sound of their name for it is a unit that has never been defeated in battle. They also have the honor of combat testing most of the newest equipment being evaluated for service, so it comes as no surprise that they were chosen to put the MK III thru its paces.
Tonight's experiment is a winter camo scheme. I think it goes really well on the Spartius for some reason. Unfortunately it's now harder to make out all those cool panels that I worked so hard to model, but that's the whole idea of camouflage....right!?
Since the hull is so curved, I couldn't use an image projection like I did on the Horatius, so I made use of Modo's new decal feature to apply the Renegade logo. It took a few try's before I got the hang of it, but it turned out nice.
Like the Vespasian, I think brown works best for this vehicle. However, I have all three colors in both camo and plain in the material list, so it's easy to switch from one to another depending on the environment.
Ok, the other day I wanted to examine the engine glow from my earlier models (which were done in Lightwave) and try to replicate it in Modo. But dumb me forgot to write down what I did!
I figured that I could always go back and look at the original files, right. Well, you know how that one goes.....they're no where to be found. I don't know how I could have lost them.
So now I have to start over and retrace my steps.
This is what I've come up with so far. It's not bad, but not quite there yet. I think it needs a little more cyan color and maybe a tad brighter.
Also, I'm trying to re-create the laser effect I did. I'm having better success with that, but It may take a slightly different workflow in Modo then Lightwave.
P.S. I can just imagine how cool it would be to glance up and see one of these cruising by over head! I bet they would make a similar warbling sound as the Martian tri-pods in the 1953 version of "The War of the Worlds".
I still remember Dr. Forrester when he remarked..."This is amazing.!"
Fabulous work of yours, as always!
Love how you describe the details and the thought process how they come to be!
I will post some of the pics of the finished Horatius Mk III, the overview of it and its WIP pics to showcase the differences to the Mk II,
in the facebook group.
If you don't mind..
Fabulous work of yours, as always!
Love how you describe the details and the thought process how they come to be!
I will post some of the pics of the finished Horatius Mk III, the overview of it and its WIP pics to showcase the differences to the Mk II,
in the facebook group.
If you don't mind..
You are doing some absolutely amazing work on the models and I know I speak for the community when I say I hope we see many more!
One thing though. You are making them too big. I was in the US Army from 93-97 and 01-05 and spent a lot of time in tactical vehicles. The hatch design on the centurion tanks is nearly identical to those on things like the M2 bradley. They are a MUCH tighter fit than you would think. The original miniatures were 1/350 scale, not 1/285, if that helps. Modern hatches are about 18" across. The Lupis is almost perfectly 40' or 12m long. Now, its possible the hatches would be larger than ours, to accomodate all that armor (we had armor too tho). If so, the scale would be close to 1/600 or more, and those scales just get really awkward. Basically, 1/350 fits, nothing else really does.
I also do not think the lupis in the back is hollow. For example, it needs to hold 8 combat equipped soldiers, including things like rucksacks, extra TVLGs, MREs, ammo, and so forth. Plus, these tanks have massive acceleration on them sometimes. I think it is far more likely each of the 8 hatches is a position for 1 soldier to sit, in their own little compartment. On the walls to their side they have additional tank stuff like the reactor, missiles/ammo cans on the walls, MREs under the seats, stuff like that. Tactical vehicles are rarely roomy, and though the Lupis is more roomy for its 8 than the 7 in the back of an M2 Bradley, since it has 8 doors its clear there are 8 smaller compartments, where the 7 in an M2 are REALLY packed in there, "butts to nuts" as we said.
Also, though not really pictured, there are probably hand/foot holds on the outside by the hatches so if the Lupis starts cruising through a high threat environment the infantry can just hang on the side, providing additional security and giving them a chance to "bounce" if the tank gets engaged.
Not sure if this link will work for you, they are on the pretty active RL facebook group (Renegade Legion - International) that is reposting your pics in awe.
Fabulous work of yours, as always!
Love how you describe the details and the thought process how they come to be!
I will post some of the pics of the finished Horatius Mk III, the overview of it and its WIP pics to showcase the differences to the Mk II,
in the facebook group.
If you don't mind..
Thanks.
Yes, you can post some pics if you like.
Thanks again for your permission. I posted a couple of finished vehicles (Wolverine and Spartius) together with the Horatius Mk III pics. They have been well appreciated in the group (there was also a request for stl.-files of them to print!) and you already got feedback I see.
Fabulous work of yours, as always!
Love how you describe the details and the thought process how they come to be!
I will post some of the pics of the finished Horatius Mk III, the overview of it and its WIP pics to showcase the differences to the Mk II,
in the facebook group.
If you don't mind..
Thanks.
Yes, you can post some pics if you like.
Thanks again for your permission. I posted a couple of finished vehicles (Wolverine and Spartius) and the Horatius Mk III pics.
They have been well appreciated in the FB group (there was a request if they are available in .STL-format to have them printed).
You already have received feedback as I see.
Thanks. I'm glad that you are enjoying the thread.
As to the scale of the models, I know that they may seem huge when compared to modern real life vehicles, but I don't have any definitive specifications on any of the designs to work from.
When I first started, I based estimates solely on two references.
The first being this fantastic cover art showing a cutaway of the Trajan, which establishes a visual cue of the immense size of these tanks. If you look closely you can see that the crew seats (just to the left of the main gun mount) are relatively tiny. I consider this to be "cannon" and I think my model matches up to it fairly well.
The second reference is this detailed schematic of the Horatius (which I now refer to as the MK II). I modeled my 6 ft tall scale figure, Waldo, and imported the schematic. I then simply re-sized the image until the hatch in the top view seemed to fit around him....yes I just eyeballed it, but that's the best I could do. lol.
I then just modeled the tank from whatever that worked out to be, and every model since is an extrapolation moving forth.
As for the miniatures, I have the entire set and sitting them side by side they don't all seem to follow a fixed scale in relation to each other, which makes sense since they are meant to be used on a board game and that's what the model makers were mainly concerned about. So I only use them for visual reference.
Thanks again for your permission. I posted a couple of finished vehicles (Wolverine and Spartius) and the Horatius Mk III pics.
They have been well appreciated in the FB group (there was a request if they are available in .STL-format to have them printed).
You already have received feedback as I see.
No problem. I'm glad you and the others are enjoying this project so far and I have sooooo much more to get to down the road!
Unfortunately, while I would love to see them 3d printed in large size practical models, I don't have any in .stl files. But who knows, maybe some time in the future.....say the 69th century. Ha Ha!
Yes - the original references are not clear. I still have quite a bit of the old Renegade Legion materials - no dimensions are included for a lot of equipment.
The mass rating (assuming it's supposed to be metric tons) means that many of these vehicles are anything but small. A 'light' grav tank seems to start around 130+ tons. This is nearly twice the weight of a current M1 Abrams tank.
They are big machines by our current standards.
Keep in mind that these have far more advanced materials, power systems, propulsion etc. They're in a whole different class compared to current military vehicles.
Keep in mind that these have far more advanced materials, power systems, propulsion etc. They're in a whole different class compared to current military vehicles.
Yep, they are, but humans are still the same size, and hatches will always be built as small as possible to keep the tank better armored, that is immutable.
I wish they would have shown a pic of a Kess Rith getting out of a tank. I know they had a few labeled as theirs, but they are just HUGE in comparison to a human and would need a hatch like 3-4x larger.
@Bad_Syntax
The first being this fantastic cover art showing a cutaway of the Trajan, which establishes a visual cue of the immense size of these tanks. If you look closely you can see that the crew seats (just to the left of the main gun mount) are relatively tiny. I consider this to be "cannon" and I think my model matches up to it fairly well.
Fair enough, not like they can't just be increased/decreased a few percent here and there. Just keep up the great work, I was just being OCD since I spent many years getting in and out of those little hatches, and can still feel the pain on my hips from being bounced around in them while moving.
Posts
Well, I finally got back to the Wolverine. I really want to get this one done so I going to try and devote most of my attention to it. I added some more hull details and started on the turret. The original design just has a simple rectangular box with another box section attached to the back, but I decided to up the ante a bit and make it more curvy reflecting the forward hull section.
And some detailing on the bottom.
Also, did some work on the Spartius. The turret on this one is a little more tricky blending that shape together in the back. One thing I don't like is the way it's offset to the side. I'm not a big fan of asymmetrical designs, it's the same way on the Horatius.
And of coarse a nice comparison render with the Romulus APC.
I finally got a few days off from work so I'm gonna devote some of the time to this project. Got inspired to fiddle with the Lupis.
The Lupis has a lot of grav coils powering it so that explains why it's one of the fastest APC's on the battlefield.
I'm not going to model the interiors of any of the vehicles, but I wanted to show this one with the doors up. As you can see, even though the Lupis is relatively small compared to other Tanks/APC's, it's still pretty spacious in the back of the main troop compartment. A standard infantry squad is made up of four legionnaires, so there's plenty of room for supplies and equipment. Also the eight doors (four per side) allows for rapid on and off loading of personnel in a hot combat zone.
Some of the details are just blocked in, but I'm nearing the end of this particular model. I think I would like to try and export this into Substance Painter once done and give it a nice paint job.
As an added bonus, I'm including an auxiliary vehicle I call the Chariot. It's named in honor of the Lost In Space land ram. Also, it seems fitting considering that TOG's society is based on an Ancient Roman theme. The Chariot is based on the Lupis chassis and is used as a grav supply vehicle. Back when I started this project, I got into a discussion about the need for such a vehicle, and so I went ahead and whipped one up. It only has defensive weaponry in the form of two anti-personnel lasers and a Vulcan 2 anti-missile gatling gun. Also, the doors are replaced by two large sliding panels.
The Aeneas is the standard combat vehicle and counterpart to the Wolverine. Despite the Wolverine's large complement of missiles, most experts believe it is no match for the Aeneas in a head-to-head contest.
The Vespasian is primarily a Hunter-Killer tank. It is tasked with acting as a screening vehicle for advancing formations and destroying any other light tanks it may come across. It is armed with a 150mm Gauss cannon, which is unusual for a light tank, making it well suited for this role.
Although both models were considered finished, I'm including them here because I want to make some component updates and additions. For example, I'm exercising artistic license by adding a Vulcan III to the Vespasian even though it's not officially in the vehicle stats. I just think it looks cool.
I have a several more vehicles I have to get to, most importantly the CW/RL Viper light APC, and then I plan on turning my attention to some Interceptors.
That'll be fun!
Finally got started on the last model of the main ten armored vehicles....the Nah Tikal or Viper Light APC.
So far, it's mostly just blocked in at this stage and I'm concentrating on the back end and turret because those areas are pretty easy. The front end will be a real challenge, however, and I'm not yet sure how I'm going to tackle it.
As you can see, it has a lot of similarities with the Wolverine due to the fact that both where designed by Naram engineers. The Naram are a humanoid race with factions allied with both the Commonwealth and TOG.
Another fun fact, is that the Viper also shares a design trait with the enemy Lupis. Both have the same turret! In illustrations and on the miniatures, they are identical. The only time this is not the case is on the vehicle ortho drawings which show the Lupis's turret to be asymmetrical and the 25mm cannon mounted to the side.
I was originally just going to fudge it and use the same one on both models, but once I got going on the Viper, I decided I had to go the extra mile and now I'm in the process of re-working the Lupis even though it goes against my earlier practice of favoring the miniatures as my main source of reference.
After checking back on my references, I realized I got the turret on the Spartius somewhat wrong. So I spent a few hours over the weekend re-working that and some other things.
Did some minor work on one of the turret's TVLG missile launchers. For some reason the design has a door covering the missile tubes, which I believe makes little sense, since the other two launchers are open. So I'm just skipping it and leaving it as shown.
And I joined parts of the hull into one piece and hollowed it out for the troop compartment. I'm not quite sure how the door operates except maybe as a lowering ramp configuration, we'll see. I also added recesses in the hull on either side of the door which you see just above and behind the "R" symbol....I think it adds a little more pizzaz to that area.
Here's an image from the Centurion Manual. It's the only good sketch illustration of the Spartius, but unfortunately doesn't show how the door works.
If I ever manage to make decent character models of the legionnaires, I'd like to try and recreate this image (and others) in 3D. There's so many great works of art in these books which is one of things that made me a fan in the first place.
Btw, if you are wondering why the guy on the left appears to be floating in mid air, its because infantry in grav legions are equipped with personal grav belts that allow them to jump long distances in order to keep up with their vehicles. This is why they are often referred to as "bounce" infantry. Although, he seems a bit gung-ho if you ask me!
Thanks. Hopefully I can dress these guys up nicely, but my texturing skills are still pretty basic at this time. I've also been collecting a bunch of images of people's physical models to get some ideas of how I may want them to look, but it will definitely be a learning process, lol.
Depending on the model, I may try to do some procedurally and others in Substance Painter, and see which give the better results.
It's been 3 months already since the last update. (groan)
Sorry for the delay, but my work schedule has changed recently and I don't have much time or energy these days to devote towards hobbies. So I forced myself to put in some effort.
In order to get back into the groove of things, I decided to work on the Remus GEV that I mentioned awhile back. Because it is based on the Romulus APC, about 70% of the modeling was already done. Mostly I had to make a new front end and modify the main hull somewhat, but the rest is pretty much the same.
As usual the reference material is all over the place, so I just went with what I thought looked good. Since this would mainly be a background vehicle, I didn't want to put too much time into it. However, I may go back and add some details here and there if I think of something cool.
As with the Romulus, the main entryway is a large drop down hatch in the rear.
I checked the stats in the reference book and noticed that the main laser was a 1.5/4 instead of the 5/6 on the Romulus, so I just shortened the length a couple of meters. Also, it didn't have a Vulcan gatling gun so that was replaced with a sensor/site thingy.
Next, because GEV's lay down and clear mine fields, I added some mine launchers (3 per side) which are those things in the center of the image.
Some details on the bottom of the forward hull just to break up those flat areas although you wouldn't normally see them since these vehicles mostly travel about a meter above ground level thanks to their terrain following radar. Sometimes they do fly at treetop height if they're in a hurry however.
So, that's about it for the modelling stage on this one. I'll play around with some basic textures and make a recognition sheet for my new thread. I'm glad I finally have one completed. I was starting to get depressed. lol
P.S. I'm not going to model the CW/RL Constructor GEV, which is based on the Liberator, because going by the only image I have of it the two look exactly the same. Instead I might take a crack at the new Forger GEV that is outlined in the Centurion Expansion book. It's supposed to replace the Constructor and I've always liked the design so....we'll see.
Thanks.
Started on the main troop access door.
I toyed with the idea of making it a horizontal-split design, but that would mean an extending ramp would be needed to get on and off and I didn't like that. Then, tried with the top half split and the bottom half drop down, but that still seemed too complicated. Finally, I just settled on a simple one piece drop down like I originally intended.
One problem I ran into was that I neglected to leave clearance for the door to pivot without hitting the underside of the hull opening....doh! So I had to lower the height of the doorway. Fortunately, there was still just enough room for Marvin (my scale dude) to fit without bumping his head....phew.
Also, looking closer at the miniature, I realize now that only the starboard side the vehicle has a door. Glad I caught that.
For my next addition, I returned to something I've been tinkering on for quite awhile. The Horatius was the very first grav tank model that I worked on when I started this project, so it's a little special to me. The only thing I didn't like about it was the positioning of the 150mm Gauss cannon on the main hull in a tank destroyer fashion.
Well, this new model is my fanboy design.
My semi backstory:
A supercomputer was programed to come up with the ideal medium grav tank and out popped the Horatius. The original version had the gun located on the turret. All seemed well until an unforeseen flaw caused the turret traversing mechanism to freeze up after a few hours of continuous firing of the main gun. To remedy the problem, the 150mm was moved to its current position and the Horatius MK II was put into full production. However, despite the fact that the vehicle was a success on the battlefield and only in service for less than a decade, TOGSOG decided to put out a call for a new tank that could potentially replace the Horatius. Several designs have been submitted and are currently going thru testing. The leading contender being the Lepidus, by the Ssoran firm SS'ta Shekaa (the Ssora are a race of reptilian bipeds).
Not wanting to lose its lucrative contract Haneppas Industries, the manufacturer of the Horatius, decided to put in their own bid. To save time, instead of coming up with a new design from scratch, they re-vamped the existing one. New armor plating, state-of-art avionics and increased power were all added. Most importantly, the 150mm Gauss cannon was moved back to its original position vastly improving the tanks tactical capabilities. Both the Lepidus and Horatius MK III have their strengths and weaknesses and only time will tell which will win out in the end.
Ok, what did I change:
Increased the size of the turret, moved it to the centerline of the vehicle and further forward to its center of gravity.
Moved the 150mm Gauss cannon back to the turret (as mentioned above).
Moved the 3/6 laser to the right side of the turret (because I think it looks good there).
Uprated the Vulcan II to a Vulcan III and placed it in a mini-turret on the upper rear of the main turret.
Moved the sensor domes to the rear of the turret to clear the line of sight of the Vulcan III.
Increased the number SMLM missiles from two to six and moved them to where the main gun was located.
Replaced the 50mm Gauss cannon with a GMDC-15 (Gatling Mass Driver Cannon).
Added a commanders hatch and some misc. details.
Some components are just blocked in so still have some modeling yet to do.
Here's a comparison of the MK III vs the MK II on the right.
*Full disclaimer: I'm not sure but I believe I read on some blog site a long time ago, that another fan outlined their text version of a Horatius MK III but I just want to state for the record that I came up with my version independently, so any similarities are merely coincidental.
More on the Horatius' turret section. Refined the main gun mount and commanders hatch, and did a lot on the GMDC-15. Since this type of weapon system was fairly new, FASA never did much in the way of drawings showing one (that I know of) so I have to guesstimate. The only thing to go on is that its multi-barreled. Also, I didn't show it before but I added the crew hatch from the Aeneas which lifts up and pivots back so they don't get in the way.
And for fun here's a render of it all buttoned up and the 150mm fully elevated @ 20 deg. I based that on the Abrams A1 main gun spec.
A small update on the Vespasian.
I took the liberty of adding the Vulcan III and commanders hatch from the Horatius. I didn't want all the secondary weapons all bunched up, so I mirrored the missile launcher to the opposite side. Did the same for the sensor domes just because it looked better. I figure no one will notice.
Earlier, I was watching some size comparison videos on YouTube of various sci-fi game vehicles (Halo, Elite Dangerous, etc) and so I thought it might be interesting to take an inventory of what I've built so far.
Here's a composition of every vehicle with the exception of the Viper. It's still in the roughed out stage, so I didn't think it looked presentable. The rest are done or nearly completed.
The first row are all Commonwealth/Renegade Legion vehicles and the second and third are TOG.
It's helpful to get a good idea of how the scale of each model interacts with the others. Looking at the Vespasian, I think it might be a tad too big for a light tank so I'm going to re-size it down somewhat. In contrast the Wolverine looks kinda small-ish so perhaps I need to size it up, oh about 5% maybe.
In the meantime I'm going over some models and making misc. changes here and there, doing mesh cleanup and so forth, before continuing on with anything else major.
As with all scout type vehicles, the goal of the Seeker is to see without being seen, (as its name implies) so it's not intended to get into direct combat with enemy vehicles. If it does find itself in trouble, it has a powerful MDC to fend off would be attackers. It's also one of the fastest tanks in service, so it relies mostly on its speed and stealth for defense.
I figure that this vehicle only has a crew of two with the tank commander doubling up as the weapons operator since a third member would be redundant given the Seekers mission profile.
Also, I resized the Vespasian like I mentioned. It's now more on par with the Aeneas in terms of overall scale. The hard part was only altering the hull without touching the common parts like weapons and sensor domes, etc., so it took a bit re-working of some structural components which was a pain.
First, I altered the Lupus' turret enough to set it apart from the Viper. It's now closer to the blueprints rather then the miniature which is identical to it's counterpart. (Blame FASA and the miniature makers for being lazy). lol
All I have to do now is finish up on those weird details on the upper rear of the troop compartment. I considered not adding them or reducing them somewhat, but I want to stick mostly to the original design. I also began playing around with the surface shading by experimenting with different color schemes, adding some "grunge" for discoloration, and some very subtle pot marks and scratches. Once I come up with something I'm happy with I'll try adding some edge wear and decals.
Next, I'm just wrapping up the Chariot.
I added two upper access doors to allow for larger items to be lifted into cargo hold instead of going in thru the side doorways.
Can't think of much more to add to this one, so I guess I can place it in the done column. Stay tuned for the upcoming Chariot Recognition Sheet!
I'm currently fiddling with two different versions of the green pattern....one camo and one plain. After endless tweaking to see what this or that button does, here is where I'm at.
Here is a close-up of the surface features and logo image. I made it back when I built the MK II in Lightwave and imported it into Modo. For some reason when I applied the textures, none of the shaders would work on the top and inner surfaces of the front hull halves. I discovered it had something to do with the "cull backface" setting. When I turned it off, everything was fine but then the textures would project onto the hull inner surfaces! Spent an hour trying to figure out why it was doing that with no luck. So I gave up and just assigned separate materials for the panels that the logos are on, copied the shaders and everything was good to go.
Btw, the hull number designates that this tank is assigned to the First Cohort of the infamous 13379th Strike Legion (The Harbingers of Death). Many a veteran would pause at the sound of their name for it is a unit that has never been defeated in battle. They also have the honor of combat testing most of the newest equipment being evaluated for service, so it comes as no surprise that they were chosen to put the MK III thru its paces.
Since the hull is so curved, I couldn't use an image projection like I did on the Horatius, so I made use of Modo's new decal feature to apply the Renegade logo. It took a few try's before I got the hang of it, but it turned out nice.
Like the Vespasian, I think brown works best for this vehicle. However, I have all three colors in both camo and plain in the material list, so it's easy to switch from one to another depending on the environment.
I figured that I could always go back and look at the original files, right. Well, you know how that one goes.....they're no where to be found. I don't know how I could have lost them.
So now I have to start over and retrace my steps.
This is what I've come up with so far. It's not bad, but not quite there yet. I think it needs a little more cyan color and maybe a tad brighter.
Also, I'm trying to re-create the laser effect I did. I'm having better success with that, but It may take a slightly different workflow in Modo then Lightwave.
P.S. I can just imagine how cool it would be to glance up and see one of these cruising by over head! I bet they would make a similar warbling sound as the Martian tri-pods in the 1953 version of "The War of the Worlds".
I still remember Dr. Forrester when he remarked..."This is amazing.!"
Love how you describe the details and the thought process how they come to be!
I will post some of the pics of the finished Horatius Mk III, the overview of it and its WIP pics to showcase the differences to the Mk II,
in the facebook group.
If you don't mind..
Thanks.
Yes, you can post some pics if you like.
One thing though. You are making them too big. I was in the US Army from 93-97 and 01-05 and spent a lot of time in tactical vehicles. The hatch design on the centurion tanks is nearly identical to those on things like the M2 bradley. They are a MUCH tighter fit than you would think. The original miniatures were 1/350 scale, not 1/285, if that helps. Modern hatches are about 18" across. The Lupis is almost perfectly 40' or 12m long. Now, its possible the hatches would be larger than ours, to accomodate all that armor (we had armor too tho). If so, the scale would be close to 1/600 or more, and those scales just get really awkward. Basically, 1/350 fits, nothing else really does.
I also do not think the lupis in the back is hollow. For example, it needs to hold 8 combat equipped soldiers, including things like rucksacks, extra TVLGs, MREs, ammo, and so forth. Plus, these tanks have massive acceleration on them sometimes. I think it is far more likely each of the 8 hatches is a position for 1 soldier to sit, in their own little compartment. On the walls to their side they have additional tank stuff like the reactor, missiles/ammo cans on the walls, MREs under the seats, stuff like that. Tactical vehicles are rarely roomy, and though the Lupis is more roomy for its 8 than the 7 in the back of an M2 Bradley, since it has 8 doors its clear there are 8 smaller compartments, where the 7 in an M2 are REALLY packed in there, "butts to nuts" as we said.
Also, though not really pictured, there are probably hand/foot holds on the outside by the hatches so if the Lupis starts cruising through a high threat environment the infantry can just hang on the side, providing additional security and giving them a chance to "bounce" if the tank gets engaged.
Not sure if this link will work for you, they are on the pretty active RL facebook group (Renegade Legion - International) that is reposting your pics in awe.
https://www.cooltexan.com/RLScale.jpg
Also, there is a discord, this link will work for a week: https://discord.gg/SyYh6v9S
Thanks again for your permission. I posted a couple of finished vehicles (Wolverine and Spartius) together with the Horatius Mk III pics. They have been well appreciated in the group (there was also a request for stl.-files of them to print!) and you already got feedback I see.
Thanks again for your permission. I posted a couple of finished vehicles (Wolverine and Spartius) and the Horatius Mk III pics.
They have been well appreciated in the FB group (there was a request if they are available in .STL-format to have them printed).
You already have received feedback as I see.
Thanks. I'm glad that you are enjoying the thread.
As to the scale of the models, I know that they may seem huge when compared to modern real life vehicles, but I don't have any definitive specifications on any of the designs to work from.
When I first started, I based estimates solely on two references.
The first being this fantastic cover art showing a cutaway of the Trajan, which establishes a visual cue of the immense size of these tanks. If you look closely you can see that the crew seats (just to the left of the main gun mount) are relatively tiny. I consider this to be "cannon" and I think my model matches up to it fairly well.
The second reference is this detailed schematic of the Horatius (which I now refer to as the MK II). I modeled my 6 ft tall scale figure, Waldo, and imported the schematic. I then simply re-sized the image until the hatch in the top view seemed to fit around him....yes I just eyeballed it, but that's the best I could do. lol.
I then just modeled the tank from whatever that worked out to be, and every model since is an extrapolation moving forth.
As for the miniatures, I have the entire set and sitting them side by side they don't all seem to follow a fixed scale in relation to each other, which makes sense since they are meant to be used on a board game and that's what the model makers were mainly concerned about. So I only use them for visual reference.
No problem. I'm glad you and the others are enjoying this project so far and I have sooooo much more to get to down the road!
Unfortunately, while I would love to see them 3d printed in large size practical models, I don't have any in .stl files. But who knows, maybe some time in the future.....say the 69th century. Ha Ha!
The mass rating (assuming it's supposed to be metric tons) means that many of these vehicles are anything but small. A 'light' grav tank seems to start around 130+ tons. This is nearly twice the weight of a current M1 Abrams tank.
They are big machines by our current standards.
Keep in mind that these have far more advanced materials, power systems, propulsion etc. They're in a whole different class compared to current military vehicles.
Yep, they are, but humans are still the same size, and hatches will always be built as small as possible to keep the tank better armored, that is immutable.
I wish they would have shown a pic of a Kess Rith getting out of a tank. I know they had a few labeled as theirs, but they are just HUGE in comparison to a human and would need a hatch like 3-4x larger.
Fair enough, not like they can't just be increased/decreased a few percent here and there. Just keep up the great work, I was just being OCD since I spent many years getting in and out of those little hatches, and can still feel the pain on my hips from being bounced around in them while moving.